Report: Bradley interviewed for Whitecaps head coaching job

According to a report in The Province in Vancouver, the former U.S. Men’s National Team and long-time Major League Soccer head coach is on the Vancouver Whitecaps’ shortlist for their open head coach position. Bradley recently finished his tenure with the Egyptian national team, winning seven out of eight qualifying matches but failing to advance to the 2014 World Cup.

The report states that Bradley interviewed with the Whitecaps last weekend and that the club is considering Bradley along with popular former midfielder and current assistant coach Carl Robinson, U.S. Under-17 manager Richie Williams, and former Montreal Impact head coach Jesse Marsch.

The Whitecaps parted ways with head coach Martin Rennie on Oct. 29 after two seasons on the job.

Prior to coaching in Egypt, Bradley guided the USMNT to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a Gold Cup title in 2007, second-place finishes at the 2009 and 2011 Gold Cups, and memorably, the 2009 Confederations Cup. Before taking the USMNT reigns, Bradley was a highly successful coach in MLS, winning a title with the Chicago Fire in their inaugural season in 1998 and winning two U.S. Open Cups with the same club in 1998 and 2000.

The Province hints that it may take a salary nearing $1 million per year to lure Bradley back to MLS, as the Princeton University alum has his eyes on a dream head coaching position in Europe.

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What do you think of this report? See him joining the Whitecaps? Are you hoping Bradley finds a job in Europe rather than returning to MLS?

Logic would say yes, but owner Andrew Hauptman pisses on Fire tradition. So even if Bradley had become available before the Fire made the hire, there were still dealings with the Quakes between the owners in late August to bring Yallop to the Fire. It was inevitable.

I definitely hope Bradley is able to land a solid gig in Europe. He has earned a lot of rep with the Egypt job and I hope that it translates into real opportunities for him. If Bradley can’t break that barrier of being the first true coach that wasn’t some sort of player like Berhalter, then I really don’t know who can. Bradley deserves it and seems to be a stand up guy. Best of luck to him.

As I keep saying, every European club has a club legend every ten years they have to hire, that knocks out like half of the jobs. Then there’s the journeymen retread coaches that supposedly know the league so well, they get another 25% of the jobs. Then you have the hotshot young guy that made a name coachinf for the smaller club down the road, that leaves like 4% of all job openings. On top of that you have to deal with owners who thi k Americans can’t do the job.
Face it, the first American coach to break into Europe will have to be someone that made a name playing in Europe. Michael Bradley will probably be a coach there at a top division club before Bob.

Agreed, A Brian McBride, if he had wanted to coach, would have had that kind of opportunity. It won’t be a MLS career coach, even if they’re successful at the National Team level. Clubs can dismiss that (not entirely inaccurately) by saying National Team coaching is distinct from Club football.

That said, I think a successful MLS coach (Like Bob) would be a good hire for one of the small-market, limited resource teams that litter the wasteland between mid-table mediocrity and relegation fodder every year.

If he comes to MLS, it has to be a big city (market) like Vancouver or nycfc, Vancouver has a committed ownership and nycfc will have everything. Too bad Seattle wants to stay in their sigi world and Chicago is becoming a mess. Why not go for bielsa or some top European coach or South American. Remember Juan Osorio.

I dream of an Arenas/Lando v Bradley/Clint rivalry. LA v Seattle could be a huge to attract new interest in the league, we have the best American managers playing with the best American players in two giant markets

I think it would benefit the MLS tremendously to have a guy like Bradley coach again in the MLS. He has gained a tremendous amount of experience that could only make a MLS coaching ranks that much better to have Bradley be counted among its coaches!

it depends if you are talking national team or elite club team/league level. If you are, then I would venture to say that there are enough qualified candidates out there in Europe that it would make sense he would not get a sniff. He coached the US and to round of 16 (in a favorable group) and failed to get Egypt to qualify. Keep in mind that there are still proven club coaches like Di Matteo still looking for another gig. Bradley is still a question mark in European circles.

Bradley would be hugely successful in England, IMHO. Far more than any other American manager right now.

The biggest problem with English soccer – actually a lot of Euro soccer – is the star culture and the almost pervasive effect the press has on the egos and disposition of their players.

Bradley is utterly immune to criticism from the press. He just plain doesn’t care. He’s as focused and grounded as Bill Belichek and creates a blue-collar “we must work hard and stay focused” mentality among his troops. He’d stabilize an unstable franchise in short order, offload the divas and problem players, and stiff-arm the press and create a shell of sanity within the team that internally insulates them from a lot of external pressure. (The job he did doing this with Team USA was good…the job he did doing this with Egypt was nothing short of phenomenal.)

Sunderland wants to stay up? Hire Bradley. Now. He’d get that franchise to safety in short order, mid-table by next year. He won’t play exciting, fun-to-watch ball, but he’s a perfect manager for a place like Sunderland, or, say, Newcastle. I don’t think he’d be any kind of fit for, say, Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, or Tottenham – too defensive, too stodgy, too unexciting – but anywhere outside those top seven or eight clubs and he’d be money. And as relentless and focused as he is, it wouldn’t shock me if he could put the right kind of blue-collar club into at least striking distance of the Top 4, either.

I am not so sure Bradley cannot work with star players, but you are absolutely right, he is so focussed and strong that I could easily see him taking any of a handful of lower level Premiership teams into contention for Europa league spots and maybe a run-up in the FA Cup.

Given a few quality players (compared to the league they are in) you might be surprised at how much more attacking-oriented his teams would be. I think he is quite willing to adapt his approach to the talents of the players he has and if he has good attackers, he would probably give them much more freedom to roam and create than he would if the players were likely to simply get in trouble by being too adventurous.

That’s exactly how I see Bob as well. He’s best at maximizing talent and building a bulldog mentality, the exact kind of battling style that gives a team the consistency that makes the difference between comfortable mid-table and relegation fodder.

Put him in charge of a club with limited resources, and he won’t be the kind of coach who moans about the lack of money for transfers. He’ll be the guy who makes sure you still get the EPL TV money next year too.